Trial opens in Los Angeles for alleged serial strangler

LOS ANGELES >> Testimony is set to begin Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting and strangling three women in the 1980s.

Prosecutors planned to call their first witnesses in their case against Samuel Little, 74, who faces life in prison for killing the three women who were found nude below the waist.

Little was arrested in 2012 after detectives from Los Angeles found him living in a shelter in Kentucky. The former boxer was linked to the killings through DNA matches between evidence recovered at scenes and Little’s DNA stored in a criminal database.

At opening statements Monday, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman called Little a “sexual predator” who carried out his killings in a consistent pattern, dragging the bodies after victims died, City News Service reported.

Each of the women had crack cocaine in her blood, according to autopsies. In the late 1980s, South L.A. was racked by the crack cocaine epidemic — and women would “do anything” to secure drugs, Silverman said.

The prosecutor vowed that women will testify who allegedly endured similar beatings by Little but survived.

But Little’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Michael Pentz, told jurors that the DNA evidence will exonerate his client.

“You have now heard no evidence, Pentz said, “you have heard only the statements of counsel.”

Little, who also went by Samuel McDowell, has a rap sheet numbering 100 pages that details crimes in 24 states over more than half of a century. In that time, Little has served less than 10 years in prison, authorities said.